The night is dark.
"I beg you." The boy's voice echoed in the cellar, and he squatted in the corner of the iron cage, shivering. "Merciful God, all glory to you. Forgive my sins and lead me out of this mire—"
There were only a few unextinguished torches illuminating the cellar. Ventilation was terrible, and the air was filled with the stench of a mixture of excrement and rotting flesh. The standard cubic iron cages were leaning against the wall, and the men and women inside were either sitting or lying down, most of them were sluggish and quiet. Dried blood stains were mixed on the mud floor, and at this moment, brilliant blonde hair that was extremely incommensurate with the environment was scattered.
"What kind of eyes are you looking at?" the man growled, stepping on the blond youth's neck. "Aren't you convinced, boy? Have you looked in the mirror? With such a face, wandering in the frontier forest at night—it's all your fault."
"Oh - where do you want to sell me?" the blond young - Jesse said lightly. His throat was stepped on, his voice was a little dull, and his eyes were full of jokes. "Please be sure to find a gentle buyer for me, I'm very afraid of pain."
The man moved his feet and kicked Jesse Dylan hard in the abdomen. "Respect." He emphasized in a hoarse voice, "Respect, little boy. I'm not kidding you."
The long blond hair covered the young man's face, and no one could see his expression at this time. Considering that "Commodity"'s face can't be hurt, the man spat and slapped his feet a few times. He was strong enough that Jesse groaned and slammed his back into one of the cages. He coughed a few times, blood running down the corners of his mouth. Pale blond hair rippling with a silky luster in the firelight slipped from his cheeks.
"...You know everything, you can do everything. You spread love and compassion to the world..." The boy in the cage shuddered. The prayers are getting faster and faster.
The smile on Jesse's face disappeared, and there was just the right amount of fear in his expression. "Please... please stop. I shouldn't look at you like that, I'll listen to you-"
"It's good to know, this is called the strong eat the weak. When you are chained by those noble lords, you will have time to think about this sentence. Then you will understand, these few feet are just trivial things. You will cry and miss me. , gentle Gentry—"
"I think you make a lot of sense," Jesse said, and his obedience disappeared. He stood up briskly, patted the mud stuck to his clothes, and kicked the iron cage behind him. "And you - I just wanted to say, it's so noisy, it just affects my performance."
The boy stared at him in horror and anger.
"Gentry, isn't it?" He casually tied up his blonde hair and wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. "How much do I remember, eighteen hundred gold? I gotta say, I'm disappointed by your performance - do you do anything other than kick people? No taste at all. I'm not having a good time." In the end, Jesse even brought a bit of heartache.
The stocky man had no interest in listening to his nonsense. He pulled out the knife at his waist instantly, and the soil slowly arched under his feet.
But before he stepped on the ground, the world in his eyes turned upside down. The beautiful product, which was still extremely weak just now, clapped his hands, stepped directly on his face with one foot, and then ran it a few times with the hard sole. The bridge of his nose shattered in an instant, and his nose bleeds everywhere. Gentry wanted to struggle, but that foot was as heavy as a mountain, and the pressure seemed to crush his head.
"This is indeed a world where the strong eat the weak, that's right!" Jesse said cheerfully, he leaned down, snapped Gentry's wrist neatly, and took the machete into his hand. Gentry's stomped mouth let out a sharp, miserable howl.
"You can't kill me!" He struggled desperately, and after realizing the disparity in strength, fear appeared in the man's voice. "I was forced too! Part of this shipment is going to be given to the Church of the Abyss. I have children to raise anyway. I'll give you information—I can give you information, valuable information!"
"That's unfortunate." Jesse rubbed his chin, but didn't take his foot away. "Intelligence... Sounds good."
"Yes, you are a bounty hunter! I will tell you everything I know, please have mercy—"
Jesse burst out laughing.
"Ouch - when I was a predator, I clamored for the weak to eat the strong, and when I became a prey, I asked for mercy? You are so interesting."
He swung the knife without hesitation, and the blood of the man's carotid artery spurted out.
"I think these gold coins are already a lot!" he announced with a smile, holding the head he just cut off in his hand. The headless corpse was still lying there, blood seeping into the soil.
"... Chenni, give me courage..." The young man spat out blood, shaking like a sparrow in the cold wind. He shrank to the corner of the cage in horror, trying to stay away from the corpse.
"Are you blind?" Jess held the head closer - the man's eyeballs were still bulging out of fear, and the boy screamed in fright. "If you weren't, you should have seen the key on this guy's belt. You can grab it as soon as you reach for it, so you have to pray? Oh I understand, after all, your suffering is also a gift from God." The headless corpse kicked farther. "Come on, this distance is just right, you can reach it by tearing your shoulders. Enjoy your suffering."
"You evil-"
"Wow, thanks for the compliment!"
"The devil without mercy, you will be punished sooner or later!"
"I'm looking forward to it." Jesse hummed, turning over the pockets of the headless corpse. Before leaving, he did not forget to pick up the corpses of the small demons from the wooden table on the side, and held them together with the heads in his hands. "It was a pleasant conversation, but unfortunately I still have an appointment to catch up—" He glanced annoyed at the blood stains on his clothes, and magically took out the black seal and pinned it on a relatively clean cloth. "If you don't hurry, they will slip away quickly!"
In fact, Nemo and his party were indeed on their way to slip away quickly.
Even if they obtained the black badge, this time they brought a freshly released wanted criminal, and they had to go over the wall again - fortunately, no strange demon believers came to the door this time. It was a pity that they had just taken a nap in the straw when they were awakened mercilessly by Ann.
"No one has come so far. It seems that Dylan is not planning to tear his face." She whispered, holding the spear vigilantly. "Get up - your physical strength should be almost recovered, we have to get out of here after registering."
Nemo grabbed a handful of straws and tried to bury his head in it to escape the reality. He was only halfway through his plan to get rid of his headaches with sleep, and Ann's wake-up call had clearly had the opposite effect—his head hurt even more.
Oliver got up very neatly, he patted his face suddenly, with a posture of intending to take responsibility for the team. Seeing Ann's eyebrows getting higher and higher, and the electric light flashing between his fingers, he hurriedly pulled up Nemo, who was still dozing off.
Adrian stood straight aside. Nemo looked over sleepily, suspecting in the bottom of his heart that this man might just need to stand up and sleep like a horse. He yawned and dropped his weight on Oliver.
"... cheer me up, you are obviously the least likely to be sleepy among us." An pointed out dissatisfied.
"My soul is sleepy," Nemo muttered.
Adrian frowned slightly, looked him up and down, and said nothing. The grey parrot huddled uncharacteristically in Nemo's robe pocket, looking as if he was thinking about some big bird life.
It didn't take long for them to be back at the familiar sign-up—in fact, it was more prominent now. In the second half of the night, except for some special shops, most of the streets fell into darkness. The building of the registration office is still brightly lit, but no one walks in and out, and it feels a little more lonely.
"Let's hand in the mission." Oliver announced somewhat unaccustomedly. He tried to find the contract in his pocket, and it took him a long time to realize that the contract scroll had already been reduced to ashes. "By the way... uh, consultant registration."
The staff on duty must have something in common with Nemo, and his upper and lower eyelids are almost glued. He grunted a few times and held out his hand. "The Black Badge of the Head."
Oliver took off the black badge on the front placket and carefully handed it over with both hands.
"Hmm... Oliver Ramon's team... Oliver Ramon?!" The man in the uniform woke up instantly, he wiped his nose indiscriminately, his eyes swept across Nemo's blood-stained robe, and finally turned to the silent Edrie install. "God! You're not going to register—"
"Yes," Oliver said nervously. "We want to register Adrian Cross as a consultant."
"You have to think clearly." The staff took a sniff and straightened up. "He's just an ordinary person, and you're going to challenge the Rad School directly. I strongly suggest you think about it again."
"We've completely offended them," Nemo explained bitterly. "It shouldn't be a problem to offend a little more."
"It's not the same! You're just no-ones, he's—sorry, Mr. Cross—he's a stain on the Rudd. They'll take the stain first..."
"Let's figure it out, don't talk nonsense." Ann said impatiently, "I know what you're thinking. If we give up now, Cross will have nothing to do with the mercenary guild - you will inform everyone in the next second. Human Cross is here, right?"
The staff touched the big nose and laughed a few times. Ann turned her gaze to Oliver.
"We want to register Adrian Cross as a consultant," Oliver repeated firmly.
The staff muttered out a stack of parchment, quills and ink juggling in the air. He reluctantly shoved the black seal back into Oliver's hand, lowered his head and rummaged through the drawer for a moment, then threw a weird ring to Adrian.
"It's done." He said angrily, "Sign it, Captain. The reward for the last mission is... Let me see, the title deed of the Edwards' land. You can choose to sell it directly to the guild or keep it for yourself."
"...Keep it for yourself." Oliver sighed after glancing at the momentarily silent crowd. He grabbed a quill that nearly stabbed him in the face and lowered his head to sign.
As soon as he put down his pen, the black stamp on their chests melted. Ann closed her eyes with a resigned expression on her face.
They didn't ignite their clothes or even radiate heat. The gray lizard pattern disappeared, and the snake head took its place. They were no longer dusty and dirty, but pure black with a metallic sheen. Nemo took it off his robe, and the magic circle on the back of the black seal flashed a streamer, apparently activated.
"That magic circle will issue a direct order from the headquarters to you - if necessary." The staff still peeked at Adrian. "It will also remind you to register your whereabouts on a regular basis, which is the main purpose. The four-eye snake level is not my personal decision! To be honest, I think this result is very polite."
"Yeah, at least not a sea scorpion." An opened his arms to the sky.
"…what are you doing?" Nemo asked curiously.
"Welcome to a new low in my life." An said with a stern face. "Once you get used to this rhythm, it's actually quite exciting."
"If we're going, wouldn't it be better for us to take the quest first?" Nemo looked away a little guiltily. "This month's mission is completed. We have also become an official black stamp, and we should be able to rest—"
"Snake level," An said bitterly, "Good idea, we can see if there are any tasks suitable for humans." She emphasized the pronunciation of the word "human".
"Aren't you going to act alone?"
"Snake level! Dear Mr. Wright, a weak human can't complete the snake level alone." An complained, "What can I do? The Rudd Cult has already targeted us, and even if I quit, I won't get anything. Good fruit to eat. You have to take responsibility, especially you, Mr. Head."
Oliver didn't turn his head, tapped the black badge silently, and called out a list of tasks that could be done. Columns of text flashed before their eyes. Even Adrian, who had been examining the ring just now, came over.
"..." Nemo looked at the ceiling after reading two lines of text.
Oliver sighed deeply, he now had a whole new understanding of what "snake level" meant. "Explore the Devil's Ruined Tower in the west of Felix Basin," he muttered in a low voice, "Fight a small bone dragon, or a hundred Palik trolls... Do you have any good suggestions?"
"Bombarded to death by abyss magic, sprayed to death by bone dragon's corpse flames, and fell in love with each other in troll feces... Which do you prefer?"
"What's that above?" Nemo decided to divert his attention.
"The golden one? The tomb of the thirteenth generation of brave warriors has been discovered," An directly checked with his black seal. "A tomb of the high elves. It is said that the holy sword that killed the demon king was in it. The shared exploration mission, even the horizon is involved. I have to say, if you want to take this..."
"Of course not!" Nemo replied immediately, and Ann and Adrian looked at him wordlessly.
"Sounds dangerous, doesn't it?" he gestured, his arm nearly sweeping the grey parrot out of his pocket. "...I mean the one below it."
"'Looking for my daughter Merody Delaney'... Huh? It's wrong, how could this be in the scope of the Snake-level mission. Is this daughter the legendary Bigfoot?"
"Is Merlotty Delaney famous?" Oliver asked cautiously, trying not to look in Adrian's direction.
"At least I haven't heard of it." An frowned, "But you have to know that such good errands usually don't turn into black stamps. I believe you have experienced it, and there may be fraud in it."
"The location is Willard's border, Vincent Town." Adrian broke the current delicate atmosphere with a stern face, "I have heard of that place - it is said that there is a curse of demons there, and it is close to the habitat of the monster tribe. land."
"This can explain a lot of problems. If there are monster groups and curses, it's normal to not find a normal person to answer. The task was just sent half an hour ago." An carefully studied the task text. "We have a half-ass demon technique... Believers, and former exorcism experts, the demon's curse shouldn't matter."
Nemo tries to reduce his presence under the gaze of the staff.
"This place is quite biased, it should be able to avoid the limelight." Oliver pondered. "One month should be enough. This seems to be the safest task. You can also take a good rest and think about the way out in the future."
"But I have a bad hunch." An murmured, "I always feel that if you have the word 'seeking', it's not a good thing."
But she looked at the task content horizontally and vertically, and really couldn't find anything wrong. It looks so much gentler than those few dead words.
"I agree, Captain." Nemo raised a hand solemnly.
"I have nothing to say." Ann gritted her teeth, "Night has a lot of dreams, and Dylan stepped in. Let's leave Garland's sphere of influence first."
Adrian nodded quietly.
Oliver called out the mission contract and carefully signed his name. "Let's go directly to the teleportation array in the city?"
"Well, Cross has already registered. As long as it's not someone from the Rad Sect, no one will stop him."
However, it turns out that if the goddess of fate really exists, she has absolutely no good feelings for them.
"Oops, where are you guys going?" Jesse Dylan's slightly ostentatious clothes had suspicious bloodstains on them. He leaned against the door of the building where the teleportation array was, and gave them a bright smile. "Didn't you say we should have a drink together tomorrow?"
,Wonderful!
(m.. = )